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Thursday, July 20, 2017

We Regret To Inform You.....

Will Writing About Writing need to start hosting ads and running constant pleas to whitelist us from your ad blockers?

Welcome to our fifth of six "fund raiser" posts. In just a week (and four days) I'm going to know whether Writing About Writing is going to have to start hosting ads to try and make a little bit more money. And more importantly whether it is feasible to keep writing.

We held steady at 65% of the way to the major "You-can-make-it!" milestone.

If this were a story, we'd be in the final section where all hope is lost. Unfortunately, I'm pretty worried because life doesn't often work like stories, and I'm kind of thinking all hope might actually be lost. I have one more week to try.

On the upside, that means our pledge drive is almost over. For better or for worse.

Hang on. I haven't told you the down side yet.

The downside is that we're pretty far from even our modest goal.

A six week "pledge drive" is a new thing here at Writing About Writing. (Though we're only reminding you every week instead of every ten minutes.) However, budgets for the coming 12 months or so need to be finalized by early August, and summer school is currently cannibalizing about half of my regular writing time. I thought I'd take these six weeks to try and hit a goal that isn't "making it" but is "enough progress to think making it might be possible."

This is the best and easiest way to support me as an artist. Set up a payment for as little as a single dollar a month and forget about it.

I'm currently 65% to my third goal. My third goal is based on the Kickstarter I ran last year. That money is still ready to fund a few months of full time writing. The goal I'm trying to reach now will keep me from having to drive for Lyft or something once I run through those Kickstarter funds allotted for the novel and keep me writing instead.

Stuck at 65%

There is only 35% to go. But also, we seem sort of stuck here. We've lost some donors, gained some donors, but it mostly evened out in the end.

As much as I completely adore my big ticket patrons, I would really love to have a lot of smaller donor. You know it's too easy to imagine that folks who light their cigars with hundred dollar bills will just throw money they don't really need at Writing About Writing, but what's really happening is that real people who aren't rich by any means are reaching deep into their generosity and when life happens that's no longer money they can afford not to have.

What I would love is if more people made small donations they could afford and kept the dozen or so folks from having to do all the heavy lifting. Yes, I have bills to pay, but there's no need for anyone to handle all of them.

There's a fourth goal and a fifth goal. The goals go all the way up to eleven.

For example one goal coming up in the next year or two has to do with my nannying day job. It is on a long, slow phase out because the kid in question is growing up. Projections for this coming school year are less than half of the hours of last year. And they'll probably go down again next year around this time. If I can't make up the income, I'm eventually going to have to find a clock to punch in order to not starve.

The goal that I'm 65% of the way to hitting is only a fraction of what I would need to write as my full-time day job–even if ate nothing but raman forever. However, I am counting the performance of this "pledge drive" as something of a bellwether. If I can make just this one, smaller goal, then I'll consider myself reasonably safe for what's coming in the next couple of years. (More patrons will trickle in.) Every dollar I make now will mean that much longer before I have to start hitting my Kickstarter money, and the longer it will last.

Besides it only costs $5 a month to get biweekly selfies.

Epic cuteness could be yours!
Image description: Epic cuteness.

Future goals involve more stable living situations and even my retirement need, but I can deal with them in the future. For now I just want to know it's plausible that I could get there.

Since this blog's inception, due to the breathtaking generosity of patrons and donations from readers like you, we have been able to:

Quit teaching night classes during the regular year and write instead

Bring you more content

Remove the annoying ads

Up the number of high quality posts each week.

(Not to put too fine a point on it, but we've been able to keep bringing you content through what would otherwise have been some completely devastating life transitions that would have put most bloggers on hiatus.)

Gone from five posts a week to six.

And we've been able to take far fewer random days off.

Here are some things I'd like to add if we continue to get more support:

Even more posts, and more high-quality posts (less jazz hands)

But also more and better jazz hands (on top of the less jazz hands) in the way of potpourris, plot arc posts, and guest bloggers.

A seventh and even eight post each week (or more?)

A greater number of carefully (perhaps even professionally) edited and revised posts

More fiction!!

Always and ever free longer fiction (books)

An always, forever, ad free experience on Writing About Writing

If I can't reach the goal of this pledge drive by the end of the six weeks [especially if I don't even come "frustratingly close"], I may have to return to hosting ads on Writing About Writing and possibly other ways to monetize my work. Ads will actually limit the rage of certain kinds of content I can post, and will probably involve no small amount of cleaning out old posts of the same. [Copyright stuff is a little less strident if you're noncommercial.] And if I really can't hit this goal, I have to think about day jobs–day jobs which would see me pulling back from writing.

*ominus thunder rumble*

That doesn't have to happen though. For the mere cost of twelve dollars a year–just ONE DOLLAR a month–you you in on backchannel conversations with other patrons, polls, and conversations about future projects including sometimes me trying to get your input about what you'd like to see. But perhaps, most importantly, you'll get that warm and fuzzy feeling that you are supporting an artist to continue making art and entertainment.

So if you like what I do and want to see me do more of it. Or if you don't want to see me have to do less of it. Or if you want to continue to see me do it without ads, please consider a small pledge. We wouldn't have gotten this far without our patrons, and we can't go any further without you.

Again here is that link: https://www.patreon.com/chrisbrecheenAnd of course if committing to a monthly amount isn't feasible, you can always make a one-time donation through my Paypal (at the top left of the screen).

Thank you all so much. No matter what is feasible at this time or what you can spare. I couldn't have made it this far without all of you.

4 comments:

I would totally help if I could, but unfortunately, I'm on a super tight budget too, with my "day job" only being part time, and trying to make a go out of writing myself. I do want to mention something though. My day job is working for different blogs and websites (and no, this isn't me looking for a job) but most blogs in order to have sustainable income have to resort to some kind of ads. Something I'd recommend to you is the Amazon Affiliate program. It would at least be worth looking into. It's not near as spamy as having ads in articles and sidebars, and it's just a matter of inserting product links here or there, and getting a % of money spent by your readers who click on it and then go on to purchase something on amazon. A lot of blogs and websites I work for use this pretty successfully. Even if you don't go with it, I thought it'd be worth a mention!

Anyways, good luck with your goal, and I hope you continue to keep making this site awesome! I love reading your posts, and facebook memes :)

Could you please, please!, change the blog template too? Because it's no responsive, confuse to search, even in my laptop the screen can't show it to me properly. I mean, I love this blog, it's my reference, but please, there are good metablogs, like Sora Templates, or Themexpose where you can find a wonderful template for free.

About the Author

Chris Brecheen is just this guy who loves to write. He's been doing it for thirty years, and even got a degree in Creative Writing that now covers a hole in his drywall. These days he focuses his pretentious, hackneyed tripe on this blog, which is two teaspoons magical journey, one cup of advice given as satire, a dash of talking cat, a splash of personified ideals, a (very) healthy dollop of pervy candor, eight heaping tablespoons of toeing the knife-edge line between irreverence and blasphemy, diced guest bloggers who live inside his head (and a couple who don't), a sprinkle of words used pretty much with the express intention of keeping prudes offended in perpetuity, regular Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly references, at least one doomsday plot per season, and a slice of pressed milk curd provided by the weird guy who lives on the third floor. Add three or four sprigs of social justice and simmer.

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